Saturday 13 August 2011

Kew Boulevard ITT C Grade - 1st Place

I felt surprisingly strong after yesterday's 96km handicap rolling around the streets of Kew before the race. I had made the last minute purchase of a set of TT bars at the The Freedom Machine in Port Melbourne with the goal of setting myself a new PB. I have never ridden with TT bars before and it felt a little weird but the position was at least comfortable. I decided on the Vision mini clip on bars with the help of the friendly staff with the basis that I didn't have to change my riding position between stages in the Tour of Bright and I can't justify a shiny new TT bike (well just yet).
I had slight issues with the chain slipping at the start but this wasn't going to be an issue as I had planned to leave it in the big ring for the entire race (by the way I had a over generous 28 on the back. On the line, I was off like a shot working my way into the 53 x 11 on the downhill hitting 60km/h with fresh legs. I was flying  past the Sunday riders and felt pro using TT bars. By the end of the first lap, I had passed the first three riders ahead of me and I was on target for a PB. At one point I was starting to over cook it a little and used the downhills to recover. At mid point of my second lap, I had a minor scare with my back wheel slipping out while going around the roundabout. But I kept the rubber side down and my composure ready for an all out 5km ride to the finish. The plan was to use up everything I had left and then roll over the finish line destroyed but satisfied I had given it my all. In the last two k's I kept the pedal down and was deep in the hurt locker driven by the clock slowly ticking over with the finish line in site. I had smashed my previous time from two weeks ago with a lot of the credit going to the new TT bars, some to the extra experience riding on the boulevard (my 3rd outing) and a little to myself as I had managed to go marginally harder according to my average heart rate.

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